There's been some discussion lately about how we can learn to handle the little jobs around the house on our own.
My mission for this evening: install two window air conditioners. My central AC is great for the main living area and my bedroom (which has a half-wall that opens onto the area above the living room), but is puny and ineffective in the two smaller bedrooms. I hadn't worried much about them until I moved into one of them as my home office. After a day dripping in sweat, I went to Home Depot and bought two--one for that one, as well as one for the guest room (since my son will be coming to visit).
They are 50 pounds each, and I just lugged them both in from the car and lugged one upstairs. Once I cool off and catch my breath I can lug the other one upstairs.
The installation instructions don't look too complicated--I'm pretty confident I can do it without too much hassle.
Oh, and this morning the flush lever handle in my downstairs toilet broke--rusted through. So I picked up one of those and I'm fixing that tonight, too.
These are NOT complicated jobs, but it makes me feel good to be able to handle them myself without any help. Last year, I installed a range hood, and even had to replace a section of ductwork where the old duct attached to the old range hood pulled out. Big messy job, but again, did it myself. I've also gotten pretty good at patching drywall.
